Posted on 01/17/2016 10:53:15 AM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans
Saw The Revenant the other day with a good friend of mine. I can't say I've ever seen a movie that was filmed as beautifully as this one. The visuals and shots were simply amazing, and the style was very dream-like. In fact, the protagonist often had very vivid and bizarre dreams, but "reality" itself was also very odd and surreal in the way it was filmed. You sort of get the feeling that there is a spiritual undercurrent that you get a sense of in how the scenes were shot, and that is indeed a theme in the film's plot.
Story-wise, I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie before, although with variations. It's a standard western-revenge flick. Of course, there is the usual "we raped the indians and stole from them" theme that we're all used to. Leonardo, however, did a great job with what he had. I also enjoyed the use of indian language, and the movie didn't whitewash Indians entirely. At one point, another Indian notes that his family had been killed by the Sioux, but he chose to "leave revenge to the heavens." Although the plot isn't very original, you honestly did not know how things would turn out in the end. The movie makes you feel that Leonardo can fail at his mission at any time. You don't feel he is an invincible character (or at least I didn't) even though the amount of abuse this guy takes would have wrecked a T-1000 Terminator.
The violence was EXTREME. There is a rape scene. The famous Grizzly bear attack was not a bear on man rape (it was obviously a female bear in the first place), but was extremely brutal. There are some shots put in just for shock value, such as a man missing a leg and crawling around during an indian raid. In other cases, people get their fingers cut off, arrows through their face, and suffer many other horrible injuries. I will hand it to the director though, as he really helps you get a sense of the terror of fighting against a large number of "savages" who can see you, and kill you at any time, but you can't see them at all.
Obviously the amount of punishment our protagonist takes is just unreal. But it's a movie, so don't worry about it too much.
All in all, as an experience, to see the filming itself, the way the shots are constructed, I would highly recommend this movie and rate it 10 out of 10. Considering the plot and other factors, I would rate it, maybe, 7 out of 10, but definitely better than anything else in theaters right now, and more original than Star Wars, even though I just got done telling you it's a movie we've all seen before. Yes, the ideas behind the film are nothing new, but it's done so well it feels like a real movie, not like one of the endless sequels or remakes we've been getting lately.
ping
Excellent movie. Leonardo DiCaprio should finally win an Oscar
I liked it better when it was called, “Jeremiah Johnson”
I saw t, too and had abou the same reaction especially with the cinematography. The lyrical storytelling reminded me of a Terrence Mallik movie.I never did figure where Leonardo got his modern jacket after he shed the bearskin though. Neither did I interpret the bear scene as a rape..just very primitive and relentless violence. Living in Montana a number of years and being outdoors a lot made me well aware of the possibility and horror of a bear attack. Would give the movie a B+.
Dialogue was hard to understand due to strong accents. Some of it was lost on me too, though I got most of it.
Are you thinking of MAN IN THE WILDERNESS with Richard Harris? Same story.
Jeremiah Johnson was the story of “Liver Eat’in Johnson”, without the liver eating. Years later Johnson said he never really ate the Indian’s liver, he just passed it in front of his mouth. It put the fear in the enemy warriors watching him.
That’s the one.
Thanks... I love movie reviews. I will pass on this one.
There are two scenes which will revolutionize the Western genre, the Indian attack and the bear attack. Additionally, the movie is grand in its depiction of the landscape but that of course had already been done by half a century earlier by John Ford.
These considerations are visual rather than storyline but the cinema is after all a visual experience and advances in that experience are noteworthy and should be acknowledged.
The storyline in the movie is weak, the vapid spiritualism in the movie is misplaced, the motivation of Hugo Glass for revenge is contrived or at least I thought so since I knew the true story of this extraordinary and epic journey and I know that it had nothing to do with the murder of Hugh Glass' son so perhaps I was put off by this dramatic contrivance.
It is the motivation that the moviemakers get wrong and it is the gratuitous political correctness concerning Indians inserted into the film that distort the pristine story.
See the movie, it is a turning point in Western films because of the virtuosity of the technology in depicting the bear attack and to a lesser degree the scope of the cinematography. Not since Jaws have we seen such a turning point of this particular cinematic action.
I’m just glad Hugh Glass wasn’t named Huge Jass.
No worries, I'll crank it in the house when I buy it on DVD.
With the exception of the scenery and the special effects when the bear attacked, it sucked.
Simplistic plot dragged out for 2.5 hours.
JMO
Good review of an extremely impressive film. DiCaprio got the Golden Globe for this, should also get the Oscar.
It’s a fiction based on a true story. So, there were several departures from reality that I would preferred had not made it into the narrative, but to be fair to the film makers, they were most likely already part of the novel on which the film was directly built. They have to be forgiven for a lot of this and I think that overall, the film succeeds. But it’s not really the true story of Hugh Glass at all.
They could have used subtitles.
I thought it was pretty boring and one hour too long.
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